Hong Mao Xiao Xiao
Hong Mao Xiao Xiao, better known as Xiao, is a naïve, gullible, and childish squirrel with an obsession for hair and pretty/cute things. She currently works as a shop assistant at Victorian Lily. Appearance Squirrel form: ''' A flying squirrel with an approximate standing height of 27cm tall (54cm including tail) s. Orange-red fur with black paws, feet, eyes and nose. She has a single band of whiter/paler fur on her tail. '''Human form: Appearence is mostly that of 5'4' 16-year old human with the exception of the giant squirrel tail, ears, nose and eyes. She has the magical ability to lose all squirrelish features if required and take on a complete human appearence but found this current human form she took comfortable with the added bonus of the squirrel's more heightened senses. She looks like a 16-year-old teenager and should be considered one in yaojing years. Often seen in her brightly coloured robes and prancing around either like an idiot or in senseless and cowardly panic. History Year Zero: Pre-Portal Breach It was believed in Chinese mythology that an animal can gain magical powers if they survived long enough (100 years plus) and when they do, they become yaojing (a sprite/lesser demon like being. Not to be confused with the Japanese ‘yosei’, the way they share the same kanji always made this RP-er laugh). Their greatest goal is achieving immortality and thus deification - at least that was their aim at the start though many tend to stray from it. Their magic levels depends on their age but could also be acquired through other means (e.g. eating humans, devouring another sprite’s power, spell tomes, magic enhancing items etc). Xiao Xiao, herself, is a squirrel jing (Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel - Petaurista alborufus - to be exact) by birth. Both her parents were squirrel jing, though her mother does sometimes kid that one of her ancestors might have been a fox spirit, and love each other far too much thus resulting in a sudden boom in the squirrel sprite population in the region of China they lived in. Xiao Xiao was the youngest of the family, hence her name literally meaning ‘tiny’ or ‘little little’ until Mummy and Daddy got incredibly drunk with the rice wine and presented them all with another litter of squirrel yaojings, making Xiao Xiao sister Twenty-Seven rather than the youngest sister. Living in the forest with next to no human dwellings, the yaojing go through life as yaojing do – doing all the usual squirrely things and honing their existing powers. That being said, they do have an absurd amount of curiosity in them and takes great pleasure in playing tricks on and observing whatever humans stupid enough to live near them or travel through their land. Year One - 2011: Oh the confusion of arriving in a new world where everything was much more advanced than her own. Thankfully, she managed to catch the sights of the wind mage, Vaati who mistook her as a magical maiden (though technically, she's more of a magical squirrel!) and shortly offered her a place to stay in his Palace of Winds in the sky. The first year had Xiao Xiao making some unlikely friends with three catgirls (who managed to get through Xiao's fears of cats via a mixture of pure bribery in the form of food and shinies), going on a quest, making more new friends, some disappeared, some stayed, some friendships forced upon them (coughWuwucough) and a whole lot of newcomer guiding! Let's not forget that time in April where she went nuts due to Mr. Dark 's influenced and maulled the shoppers in the mall, tearing limbs apart, munching on souls and ultimately dying in the hands of Carrie. Another notable event of the year would be winning second place in the Portal Breach Kart Race in the Icelands with her partner for the race Nergal Jr (also marked the ONLY interaction those two ever had in PB history). Also notable: Down the Rabbit Hole plot involved this squirrel waking up in Alice dresses and armoured in the middle of a lava filled place with Aya Valentine as the White Queen to lead them through the bubbling magma and ew icky statues. Year Two (2012) Her first time celebrating Chinese New Year without her family proved even more upsetting when the person she was hoping to celebrate it with here DIED. Thankfully Lord Mushu came back as a ghost just for that week of festivities (and almost got nommed by the squirrel - yummy dragon soul!). Of course, Portal Breach would not be Portal Breach without some sort of crisis happening round the corner. It seems like just as her Chinese New Year celebrations were over, people were getting kidnapped by priests. How ''dare ''they kidnap her new pretty friend, Terra! With a motley crew of people, they stormed the church, beat the priests and the squirrel even got a feast of priest souls out of it. Come April yet another crisis. Food doesn't taste nice, parts of the Breach were being blocked off by codes and once again a motley team of people were assembled for three different locations to investigate the reasonings for the recent happenings. Poor squirrel got sent to the Marshlands - like, ew - then died (rather willingly) to destroy a datamine found there. She ended up in the Pool of Souls where the fight continues but this time with a pony of Trojan doom. This all really didn't made any sense to Xiao Xiao. In fact, to this date she still doesn't understand what happened and is quite content not worrying about the finer details. She went, she fought, she died, she fought, she revived, she fought, they lost, they won and happily ever after. That basically summarised her experience with it. A lull at the start of summer with the only things noteworthy being Megamind's wedding (the beach! Sand AND water, this squirrel really couldn't imagine them picking a worst wedding location), a single 'Hello! Newcomer' event in there somewhere and accidentally crashing an unplanned masked men chase over the rooftops. Oh wait, quiet summer? Yeah right! The sweltering heat of August had this squirrel going on yet another soul-driven craze and she tumbled into the poisonous and corruptive substance called Phazon. What do you do when you're corrupted by a highly mutating chemical? Why, crash yet another masked man's party with the help of a lovely old man (Diablo in disguise), whine, cry, and throw a tantrum about how nobody loves her and how they all left her and, in the process, take the Palace of Winds to battle against a spaceship several times it's size. We shall end this emotional spell with a complete loss of self and being reduced down to a Phazon addicted monster, who could only compute two things: Phazon is yummy and destroying things for I-don't-know reasons. Thankfully, she was mercifully killed in an off-screen fight with Ridley. Xiao woke up after the event with no recollection of her madness after the whole War Fortress Palace of Winds debacle. Further crying, sobbing and apologies were spewed forth as she asked for Vaati's forgiveness for ruining his abode. But through it, at least two good things happened. Xiao could now consider herself an official minion of the Wind Mage's and with this in mind, will hopefully curb her weakness towards souls somewhat. Onwards, Xiao got a job at the lovely Victorian Lily, working under Aya Valentine as floor worker and assistant. Miss Aya, she will not let you down! The end of the year also found Xiao meeting a new friend, the often half naked Uriel who was loud, weird and, if he wasn't such a wonderful source of heat during the winter times, Xiao would had hated him from the get go. As it was, their friendship didn't start very well. From 'ew, he's such a creepy weirdo' to 'okay maybe he can play some pretty music' to acceptable acquaintance right back to a big upset when he hugged her. It was until after she beat him black and blue the next morning, and apologies were exchanged, did they finally start being friends proper. Year Three (2013) What a terribly quiet new year! Seriously, so booooooring! Nothing happened in January and there wasn't anything going on in February either. Then along came the corruption of robotic beings in March and suddenly Xiao found herself randomly shot at by acquaintance-almost-friend XR! The jerk! We're not friends anymore! What did she do wrong?! Stupid robot! Not to be outdone, another acquaintance turned crazy exactly one month later. This time, it was a possessed Uriel set fire to the forest. By blowing a large amount of grey clouds across the sky and raining on his parade, she and others managed to save what was left of the forest and their friend as well. May and June were all about relaxing with friends. Xiao Xiao met a new friend, a fantastically gallant and adorable Sir Meta Knight and even got into a friendly spar with him too! She lost in the end but that was expected. He WAS a knight after all. In Xiao's books, that explained everything. Then there was hanging out with Ryoko in the forest, meeting the space pirate's sister, and in June, meeting Miss. Dee! Lovely, lovely people. July still have the squirrel meeting a new person, this time a Miss. Nessa with her pet rat. A few days after though, found the squirrel in a moment of distress when she found out what happened to her dear friends Jana and Livewire. Oh, what a horrible friend Xiao Xiao was. The guilt of ignorance for that would linger for a long while yet. Year Four (2014) The year started off with a grand quest to save Uriel, again. This time it ended in success.... well, as 'success' as a freed friend and just as free world-eating dragon was. This squirrel just hope the freed dragon won't come back and bite them in the rear-end, literally. Shortly after the end of that hot situation, she had her birthday and Lord Vaati even made her delicious steamed baos for it and gifted her a precious shiny gemstone! This is one loved minion! SHE WILL FOLLOW YOU FOREVER! Personality With limited human contact in her life before Portal Breach, she is, above all, curious and naive. Xiao Xiao possesses little understanding of humans and the way they live, even more so in PB where technology was so advanced that it was pure magic as far as Xiao was concerned concerned. Likes pretty and cute things and have a habit of hoarding said things (provided they're hoardable). A self-admitted idiot because she knows she wasn't the smartest egg in the box. She really do not mind being considered so though, because it meant lower expectations to live up to. Also a scaredy cat, easily frightened by things that look remotely dangerous or large - comes with being a squirrel i.e. very far down the food chain. Coming from a large family, Xiao developed a nagging case of inferiority complex. Between finding herself never being as good as her older siblings when it came to almost every aspect of life (she acknowledged that they had many years head start but the frustration was present regardless) and attention was more focused to those younger than her, she started to consider herself inferior, not special and/or not worthy of attention. Hence why she is always delighted if people remembered her, did things for her or gave her attention. And also the reason why if when things go wrong, she apologises so much because (unless sledgehammer blatant) she was certain it was her fault. This complex also contributes towards her general cowardliness as she fears to disappoint or upset others, so she takes the easy way out instead of coping with it. Having spent two years on PB and been through various plots and events, it is fantastic to say that she is a little bit less timid and controllable now. As of early 2013, Xiao had managed to at least control herself from plain devouring the souls on first sight, thus that tiny bit less likely to lose herself in a feeding frenzy. Unfortunately with this stability she had taken two steps back in overall innocent acceptance. More aware of the new world she must continue to live in now, and the people within it, Xiao had started developing hints of a being a bit of a selfish brat/pest when it came to things she's unhappy about instead of being the doormat she was in the past. Abilities *Heightened senses of a squirrel - sensitive hearing, nocturnal vision, excellent sense of smell, great balance, nimble etc. *Mediocre-medium strength magic - mostly used for transformation between human and squirrel and everyday use (i.e. summoning up hankies) *Spiritually Perceptive - A combination of animals being more sensitive to paranormal activity and a yaojing's choice of powerup meal (i.e. souls) meant Xiao has the ability to see and interact with spiritual beings, ghosts and the souls of people and creature alike. Relationships Family Vaati - LORD PRETTY HAIR! Main hair stalking target - likes to know where he is, what he's doing and preferably be within touching distance of his fascinatingly pretty hair. To her, Vaati is her lord, guardian, father, brother (older AND younger), master, best friend, pet, charge etc EXCEPT romantic interest. He took her in when she had nowhere to stay and gave her such a pretty room. If he says 'Jump', she'll ask 'How High?' whilst already reaching the ceiling. Never had there been such a happy and willing minion as Xiao. The Garden - PRETTY GARDEN! LOVE! And they love TEA too! Double yay! To Xiao, their existence is like an aunt/mother nature/secondary guardian/older sister. Sadly, she also knew that The Garden doesn't like her all too much and that they would not consider twice with mincing her into appetizer-sized pieces if she pester them too much with her constant doting.... well Xiao would like to think they might consider thinking twice but thrice would be a definite no-no. But they seem to have vacated the Palace now and maybe even left Portal Breach, much to the squirrel's dismay. Mushu - Lord Mushu! Thinks of him like an uncle. In awe that he's a dragon. Also feels a little inadequate to be friends with a dragon when she's a lowly yaojing. Friends Aya Valentine - MY PRETTY BOSS! MY LOVELY PRETTY BOSS! Ryoko Hakubi - Nicknamed KoKo. Fantastic hair and with enough skills to make Xiao wonder if there was anything her friend couldn't do. Xao doesn't really like alcohol - it tastes all sorts of weird to her - but she love her best friend so much that she wouldn't mind having one of the milder and sweeter drinks with her.... even though Xiao was a sleepy drunk and hogged all the empty bottles like they were treasures. Sir Meta Knight - Known as Sir Knight to Xiao. He's so round! Small! Squishy! Cute! Adorable! Er.... she meant Handsome! Gallant! Valiant! Strong! Noble! Please take her with you as a sidekick when you go rescue any fair maidens - for surely that is what all knights do, right? D'nea Greenhand - Nicknamed Miss. Dee. She has lovely curly hair and she did not mind chatty squirrels and she's good with magic and she talks about the most interesting of things and and.... and? Did she need any more reasons? Jana - She's like an older sister to her. Always kept her safe when there's dangerous looking things in the sanctuary. Livewire- Love LW because she's about as naive as she is, they both like hugs and also how she's always a ray of sunshine when she sees her. Rarity - MY CUTE MAGIC UNICORN CO-WORKER! SHE'S SO PRETTY! Uriel Akir - As the Chinese saying went 'If (they) didn't fight, (they) wouldn't have known each other'. Initially finding Uriel weird then escalated to creepy weird, toned down to maybe he's not that bad to general acceptence then straight to indignant slap in the face. The slap led to a fight led to beating each other black and blue and understanding each other a little bit better. Talk about a rough start to a friendship! Wheatley - Nicknamed Mr. Ball. He's always around Kefka and you know how BFF's BFF is your BFF too. Yes, that's right. But Xiao grew to love Wheatley as a precious friend of her own too. There is just something about him that's begging to be vandalised fabulous-fied and it helped when Wheatley doesn't seem to object (or at least haven't outright done it yet). Hsi Wu - wants to call him Wuwu. Loves the fact that he likes tea and delighted there's another Chinese demon in PB. Jackle - Mr. Colourful Creature. He flies! He's colourful! Love him because of that. Kefka Palazzo - Nicknamed Kaka. You know how some girls hang around each other, giggle, share fashion tips and are like so BFFs. Well that's what Kefka is to Xiao. Like, OMG, so fabulous. Where did you do your nails? Check out that hair~ Terra Branford - MORE PRETTY HAIR. She loves Terra. She's so nice. She makes her food and she's so preeeeettty. To the childish Xiao, Terra is like a princess out of a book. Notable Acquaintances Carrie Akyla, Miya and Lacia - Mixed feelings regarding them. Curious about technology, likes the way they gave her dumplings once and a tour of Carrie's lab. Upset that Carrie killed her and highly cautious because they're part cat. Whilst she appreciates their friendliness, she can't help but be wary of them because they're cats. {INACTIVE} Pirate Lord Ridley - HATE! HAAAATE! HAAAAATE! XR - Knew him through Mushu. Their relations had been most puzzling for Xiao. He's a friend yet not quite a friend as, to be honest, she found she didn't really know him. She feels guilt for being the one who brought Mushu round to say goodbye. You could say that their friendship was almost an 'obligation' on her part even though she didn't want to admit it. Then he went crazy and shot her during the Lights Out plot and her regards of him went downhill - fast. Hair Stalking Targets (unknown relations) Jherrek Akir, Vincent Valentine, Sabaku no Gaara (for his lovely scarf) Trivia *Originally created by her rp-er many years ago and was a mute character. But having one character mute character was enough for this rp-er so she made Xiao talk instead (which proved to suit the rp-er's writing style perfectly because both character and rp-er babble SO MUCH) *Flying squirrels usually have a throwaway tail which could be left behind to distract predators as the squirrel make their hasty exit but Xiao had born without that function. The tail stays stubbornly attached. A sensitive subject which she tries to pretend to be non-existent. **Reasoning for this is NOT because oh boo-hoo-my-character-must-be-special but because of lack of research during character design stage so by the time of realization, would just have to make up a random excuse so as not to back pedal. *Hates water, sand, being too cold, being too warm, icky stuff, smelly stuff and loud stuff. *All her siblings are named after numbers. The oldest is Hong Mao Yi (Red Fur One), second oldest Hong Mao Er (Red Fur Two). This makes it incredibly easy to remember names and to call one another - simply Yi Ge (Older Brother One) and Wu Jie (Older Sister Five) etc.The only exceptions to this rule are Xiao Xiao and her youngest brother of all, Xiao Di (Little Brother). Category:Characters Category:Original Characters